The present invention generally provides improved devices, systems, and methods for evaluating tissues, materials, and/or fluids within the oral cavity. In many embodiments, the invention provides improved devices, systems, and methods for determining tooth vitality (or other health characteristics of other oral objects), often through the use of a detachable probe body which allows transmission of electromagnetic signals while protecting other system components from contamination. The probe body may be disposable or sterilizable.
Diagnosing the health of a particular tooth can be a challenge. Patients may (or may not) experience tooth pain for a variety of reasons. Techniques now employed to detect the health or vitality of a tooth, and particularly of the dental pulp within a tooth, are quite subjective. As a result, dentists may perform inappropriate treatments for a tooth, in some cases without resolving or eliminating the real source of problem(s).
Techniques commonly employed to detect dental pulp vitality often rely on application of a stimulus to the tooth. The dentist may evaluate a patient's subjective response to the stimulus, in part to determine if the pulp has deteriorated so much that it must be enervated. The stimulus may include thermal (cold or heat), mechanical, and/or electrical energy applied to the tooth under examination, with the dentist asking the patient whether he or she feels any sensation.
Unfortunately, patients are often in pain when they seek treatment, and the sensations resulting from such stimuli can be intensely unpleasant to the patient. Moreover, the mere ability to sense stimulation applied to a particular tooth may not mean that the pulp within that tooth (and its nerves) remain healthy (and vice versa), and both the patient's subjective reaction to the stimuli and the dentist's subjective ability to interpret the patient's response may play a role in the evaluation. False positive indications of successful stimulation may result, for example, from indirectly stimulating surrounding tissues or nearby oral objects. Tooth stimulation examinations may also provide little information regarding gradual changes underway in tooth vitality. As a result of the limitations on clinical techniques for accurately determining tooth vitality, patients may have the wrong tooth extracted, removing a viable tooth while the original source of the problem remains, or patients may be subjected to other forms of misplaced treatment.
A variety of improvements have been suggested for more accurately and more objectively measuring tooth vitality. Studies have proposed applying pulse oximetry and laser Doppler flowmetry to determine the integrity of the pulp underlying a tooth. These proposals have indicated that it may be possible to detect blood oxygenation and/or flow using, for example, the changes in light absorption passing through a tooth, the shift in light frequency returned back from a tooth, or the like. Unfortunately, these proposals have largely relied upon blood measurement systems intended for use in other environments. These environments differ significantly from a practicing dentist's examination room, and the existing blood measurement systems often have costs which are untenable for most dentists. As a result, despite the theoretical benefits that may be available, prior proposals for improved tooth vitality measurements have not found widespread application among practicing dentists.
In light of the above, it would be advantageous to provide improved devices, systems, and methods for measuring and/or determining tooth vitality. It would be particularly advantageous if these improvements made it practical to implement objective tooth vitality detection and measurements performed by practicing dentists on their patients. It would be particularly advantageous if these improved techniques enhanced tooth vitality measurement accuracy and objectivity using simple methods and structures suitable for use by a dentist, hygienist, or the like in the dental examination room.